Ohio loses clout in the new Congress

Sunday

Feb 10, 2019 at 8:59 AM

WASHINGTON — When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gaveled in the 116th Congress last month, she also gaveled in an Ohio delegation that’s far less powerful than in recent years.

Just a few years ago, the state not only had the speaker of the House, but in the early part of the decade it also had members in key positions of power. Now, because many of those lawmakers have left and been replaced by people with less seniority, the state is a bit of an afterthought.

Contributing to the lack of power is the fact that while Democrats won control of the House last November, 12 of the 16 members of the Ohio delegation are Republicans. In this Congress, Republicans in the minority have little clout.

“It’s a 12–4 Republican House delegation and it’s a Democratic House now,” said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “So that invariably lends to the caucus having a little bit less sway.”

It’s also a shift for the four Democrats who had been relegated to the back benches. They now have power.

None of them have committee chairmanships, although two — Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, and Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo — are chairs of the appropriations committee’s subcommittee on the Legislative Branch and Energy and Water Development, respectively.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, chairs the Financial Services Committee’s newly created subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion, serves as vice-chair of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus and is considered a key ally of Pelosi. She also was named to a regional whip position in Pelosi’s leadership team.

And Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Cleveland, is chair of a newly developed House Administration Committee’s subcommittee on elections.

Despite the Democrats’ smaller presence, said Mark Caleb Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University, “Ohio's Democratic delegation is in a good position to exercise influence on behalf of the state and constituents.”

Still, it’s a far cry from where the delegation once stood.

As recently as 2015, Ohioan John Boehner was the House speaker, third in line to the White House. But even before that, Ohio Republicans held seniority on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and key appropriations subcommittees.

During a period in the 1980s and early 1990s, when the delegation had 21 people, then-Rep. Michael G. Oxley chaired the House Financial Services Committee. Then-Rep. Deborah Pryce served as GOP conference chair. Then-Reps. David L. Hobson and Ralph Regula were appropriations subcommittee chairs, and then-Rep. John Kasich chaired the House Budget Committee.

Though it was a political and not a governmental position, Rep. Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington was head of the House GOP's campaign operation until stepping down after the November election.

Paul Beck, an emeritus political science professor at Ohio State University, said Ryan and Fudge have landed subcommittee chairmanships despite appearing to rebel against Pelosi’s speakership. But on the flip side, Beatty “emerged probably as the most influential of the four” because of her “unstinting support for Pelosi.”

That — and her position on the Congressional Black Caucus — means she’s one to watch, said David Cohen of the University of Akron’s Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.

“Beatty hasn’t been there that long, but she’s moving up the ranks quickly, and aligning herself with Pelosi was politically smart,” Cohen said.

He said that despite considering a challenge of Pelosi, Ryan — who ultimately voted for Pelosi on the floor of the House — has done well for himself. His spot as the Appropriations Subcommittee chair in charge of Legislative Affairs means Ryan is “essentially the mayor of Capitol Hill.”

The position, he said, “allows you to be a real kingpin and a dealmaker,” which can only help someone who Cohen said “now has a national profile.”

“Pelosi very smartly didn’t strip him of his chairmanship,” he said.

And Kaptur’s position at the head of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee also has cache, he said, particularly with that subcommittee’s jurisdiction over Great Lakes issues.

Among Republicans, the power equation has shifted dramatically. Beck said of all the 12 Ohio Republican lawmakers, perhaps the most influential is Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, who is both a close ally of President Donald Trump and the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

That’s a change, too. Jordan was once considered a spoiler for the GOP, and many in Ohio’s Republican delegation blamed him when Boehner decided to retire in 2015.

“At least those who are not part of the Freedom Caucus consider him to be kind of a grandstander, a thorn in their side,” Beck said.

Now, Jordan will be the chief defender of Trump on a committee tasked with oversight of the president. Whether that translates to power, said Kondik, is very much in question.

“It depends on how you define powerful,” Kondik said. “If powerful is press appearance and closeness to the president, then maybe Jordan is powerful. But I don’t think even in his caucus Jordan wields much power.”